After an opening three-over 74 at the 151st Open Championship, Tom Kim repaired to his Hoylake-area rental house to rest up for his second round. The property has a patio out back that drops down to a yard, which, for Kim, proved deeply unfortunate. As he stepped off the ledge Thursday, he said, “my foot got caught and slipped and popped.”
Sounds painful, and it was.
“Grade 1 tear,” Kim said Friday of his right ankle. “I’m barely walking.”
Barely walking isn’t an optimal condition for a professional golfer in the midst of a major championship. (Ask Tiger Woods.) But Kim’s no softy, and neither, it seems, is his circle of advisors.
“I got some tough love from my team, and I was told to suck it up,” he said.
So suck it up Kim did.
With a nod of approval from his trainer, Kim taped up his bum ankle Friday morning and readied for his 8:03 a.m. tee time with Tom Hoge and Abraham Ancer. “It’s just uncomfortable,” he said later. “I’m not going to give up. It’s just not who I am.”
With low expectations, Kim hit the range to get loose, taking mostly half-swings. “Once I started to warm and get more comfortable with it, I was able to play around with it,” he said. Adrenaline helped, too. The crowds, the vibe, the moment — it all helped him, he said, if not healed him.
“My first hole I could barely walk,” he said.
Tom Kim arrived a year ago. Then everything changed
That didn’t stop Kim from making par, which he followed with two more pars at 2 and 3. The weather was warming, and so was his game. At the par-4 4th, Kim stuck his approach to 12 feet and made birdie. At the par-5 5th, from 11 feet, another birdie. Yet two more birds came at 7 and 8.
“I hit the ball better than yesterday without a bad foot, so maybe it’s a good thing,” he joked after his round.
Kim turned with a four-under 31 then played the back in one over to sign for a 68, a six-shot improvement from his first-round score. On paper, Brian Harman’s 65 was the round of the morning wave — at writing, Harman has the lead by five — but Kim’s effort may have been more impressive still.
His plans for Friday afternoon?
“Just put my foot on ice the whole day and try to have some medicine and try to eat well and just rest up for tomorrow,” he said.
Presumably he’ll also still clear of his patio.